WOW, a legit short story that goes for around 2000 words.
Atop where it all started
Ikeda stood silently as the cold wind passed by him in a daze, he clutched his phone in his hand. 'Gakuho Asano', he was going to call him, but it had been three years since he last saw his teacher. His son, Gakushu would see him time from time, luckily his school was near to Ikeda's school distinct. Close enough for the little strawberry blonde to take a train unsupervised. His little face would always cheer him up.
Gakushu could so easily pick up on his emotions despite being so young, when Ikeda wanted to cry then Gakushu wanted to share his pudding with him. Or cry with him since their emotions can be in sync at times, while trying to feed him pudding.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang. Just as Ikeda was about to give up, his call was picked up.
"Ikeda! Long time no hear!" Gakuho answered pleasantly surprised.
Ikeda smiled. "Long time no hear, Mr Asano!" Ikeda wanted to cry, hearing his former teacher's excited voice, but he kept back his emotion down his throat. He really thought of him to be a father figure in his life.
"I heard you're doing so well."
Gakuho's preparatory school was doing extraordinary well, as expected from Gakuho Asano. After three years of Ikeda's into junior high, his school became famous with parents entrust their children to him after learning about his reputation for results.
"I'm doing all right, this is a surprised!" Gakuho exclaimed. "What's the occasion?"
Ikeda quickly lied. "On- nothing! I just wanted to hear how you were?" That wasn't what he wanted to talk about, and yet he couldn't bring himself to burden his teacher.
Gakuho laughed on the other side. "I'm very well, thank-you. I hope you aren't causing any trouble!" The man lightly jested and yet, it tore into Ikeda's heart. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry as well, but he does neither, he only gave him an empty smile even though Gakuho can't see it. In some ways, he was happy that he didn't see him face-to-face, for his teacher to see what he has become.
"Of course not!" Ikeda defensively shouted. "I have become the compassionate student you always wanted to be."
His teacher lightly chuckled, Ikeda told himself to keep smiling. "You sound busy, so I will call you later. Buy my lunch sometime, okay, Mr Investment?" And Ikeda ended the call before Gakuho had a chance to reply back to him. Gakuho couldn't see him and he was happy this way, that way he couldn't see the tears that rained down from his pinkish eyes.
But he wanted Gakuho to see him like this as well, that he wasn't happy, that he was crying every single night, the bruises on his body because his bullies.
"Why... I told myself if I hear his voice, that I would stop..." Ikeda said to himself, looking down at his phone with a grim smile. He couldn't stop himself from crying. He couldn't be bothered to wipe his tears anymore. "Then why...? Why won't I stop?" He collapsed on his knees, as if all strength has left him and his phone scattered away from his fingers.
"Why won't I stop?" He wanted to scream, and despite it all, he also wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Without thinking, he stood up and with no hesitation. Gakuho was doing fine, therefore Gakushu was doing fine, then they would be fine without him. Everything will be fine, and it's time for him to be fine as well.
No more pain, no more bruises, no more tears, no more cries, no more bullying, no more of the times that his money be stolen. Just nothing, but the dark void underneath that will end everything.
Ikeda stood on top of the railings, balancing himself steady. After a deep breath, he leaned back, letting gravity to do its bidding. As he fell, he thought back in his life; the times when he happily played basketball, of Gakuho and his classes. Of his two once closest friends before they all went their separate ways, Nakai and Mori.
And of little Gakushu. He could remember in perfect clarity of how he first met little Shu, it was on a winter's day, when Gakuho was showing off the baby Shu. When it was Ikeda's turn to hold the baby, he gawked of how tiny and light he was in his arms. Shu's face light up and gurgled at him, his tiny hand extended for him and latched onto his finger.
He made an indescribable sound that could be akin to laughter. Something lit in Ikeda's chest, as Shu intently stared at Ikeda with an open-mouth smile. Ikeda wanted to say 'hello', but the overwhelming emotions made him teary eyed. Gakushu quickly caught on and cried with him, ear-piercingly loud.
"Ikeda~." Gakushu's first word. Actually, it was more of a 'ir-eeedal'. But everyone knew that he was trying to call out to Ikeda, and it made Ikeda cry. And once again, Gakushu cried back as their emotions became comically in-synced.
"Ikeda~." Gakushu beamed. When his little legs rushed towards him, and he would catch him and lift the boy into the air, smiles all around. Life flashes before his pinkish teary eyes.
"Ikeda~." Gakushu fussed, as Ikeda ruffled up his hair again in tangles. Ikeda always like to make it resemble a birds nest.
"Ikeda~." Gakushu called out to him, chasing after him as Ikeda stole his cup of pudding, slow enough for Gakushu to catch up but never fast enough to catch him.
'Hey, Shu... Can you please forgive me, I'm not the strong big brother you think I was.' He asked.
'But I promise you I will make it up to you, in the next life, when I'm all grown up... Do you think you could forgive me?'
Time felt like it dragged on, like it was slowly down, it felt like forever since he fallen. 'How long have I fallen again?
'It's okay if you don't, I will be fine with that... I am leaving you alone after all... Please don't cry for me.' He smiled, so truthfully yet so solemnly. Everything was further away from him, but literally and figuratively, as they slipped from his grasp.
'I will buy you all the sweets you want, I will buy you all the presents you could ever possibly ask for to make up for my failures.'
He should had visited beforehand, to see Gakuho and Gakushu, but if he did he would had wavered. But to see Gakushu again, to see him and watch him grow, to see him graduate junior high because he himself couldn't do so, it would had been nice.
Maybe he would be a ghost, wandering this earth before then, to watch over him and protect him.
A guardian angel, the idea sounded beautiful to Ikeda. Anything that would let him watch over Gakushu. To see him graduate junior high, then senior high, it was a lovely dream...
The adorable face of Gakushu Asano flashed before his eyes, "Shu... My cute little brother." He uttered out with one more final smile, he reached out for the moon as it was getting further away from him.
He could still see Gakushu's strawberry blonde hair, all ruffled up in tangles by his hand and purple eyes shining back at him with a bright smile to match.
"Ikeda~!"
"I will be the best big brother you will ever have... I promise."
And he made his final promise to the moon. Then his body crashed into the cold waters below and darkness consumed him as he let the water filled up his lungs.
His final thoughts were still on Gakushu, as the waters rushed and burned into his lungs. Even as he chocked, his body screamed in pain, how the cold water stabbed into him, he could hear Gakushu singing to him.
"In my right hand is cake~. In my left hand is pudding!"
'That's right, that is the song we share.' Ikeda recalled, and he tries to sing along.
'Towards to... My dear...' But all he did was mouth along to the song, as his strength wanned from him. More water entered into his mouth.
"Take a bite of that sweet goodness, I can feel it bouncing off my spoon. But I really want to have cake as well…"
'I won't... Let's have both instead.' The thought of Gakushu gave him some semblance of warmth. Even as his mind became more fuzzy and distorted by the second, he could still see his smile .
"Lets move forward. Bounce to and then spin around like the Earth." This was the part where Gakushu would give a little twirl. Ikeda swallowed up more of the murky. dirty river water.
"Off to the world of sweets."
And it was his bright smile that was easing away the pain as he faded away. He truly hoped that when he sees Gakushu again, in the next life, that he would be the best big brother that ever existed.
"Pudding para-."
.
.
.
On top of that bridge stood a reaper cladded in black, her black hair neatly held in a low pony tail.
Diva dutifully watched through his Cinematic Records; The happy memories of him spending time with a very young boy with strawberry blonde hair, the sad memories of him enduring the harsh and persistent bullying in his basketball club.
She silently and dutifully watched as they wrapped around her before his records eventually disappear. She slid her Death Scythe, a sleek pearly-white katana back into its black sheath to her hip.
She took her booklet before finally stamping onto the page. "Ikeda Rikuto died on XX XXXX by drowning. No remarks."
She stared at his profile page, knowing that those pinkish eyes staring back at her will be instead change into the colour of chartreuse phosphorescent the moment he wakes up in the Department.
She closed the little booklet and tucked it into her pockets.
She peered over the ledge and look down to the dark waters below a brief few minutes. Silently she fixed up her glasses and she turned away, back to the Department after collecting her final soul for her night shift.
Her high-heel knee-high boots clanked at her every step, echoing into the night. Nobody that walked past her knew that a boy just jumped off a bridge. Two thoughts ran through her head; whoever is going to become his main senior and when her brother Albert is going to be finished from his shift in the Office.
Another night for the Department, and Diva disappeared into the night.
